Expect Helicopters Hovering Over Burien Wed. Morning

That speck in the sky was one of three local news choppers hovering over B-Town to get a shot of the third runway test Sept. 25th.

You may recall that on Thurs., Sept. 25th, a buncha mysterious helicopters were seen hovering over Burien like hungry hornets at a carnivore’s convention.

People freaked and started calling/emailing us, wondering why and how our world was about to end.

The reality of course was that it was just local News Choppers wasting expensive fuel covering the test-landing of the expensive third runway at SeaTac Airport.

Well, it’s going to happen again Wed. morning Oct. 8th (pending the weather), anytime between around 9am and, um…whenever they darn well feel like it, as the Port of Seattle will be conducting another test-landing, this time with the first-ever wide-body commercial aircraft.

So consider yourself warned!

From their press release:

First Commercial Wide-Body Test Landing on Sea-Tac’s Third Runway Set for Wednesday, October 8th

The Port of Seattle will welcome the first-ever wide-body commercial aircraft to land on Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s new third runway as part of the final scheduled test landing for Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification.

A Northwest Airlines A330 will perform several touch and go landings as part of the certification process for the new runway scheduled to open November 20th.

An Alaska Airlines 737-800 was the first commercial-type aircraft to land on the third runway September 25th. That test certified narrow-body aircraft.

FAA administrators will monitor the landing to test and verify the runway’s instrument landing systems (or ILS). The aircraft will approach under auto-land conditions to test the ILS in what would be the worst visual landing conditions an aircraft would encounter.

NOTE: This event will be weather dependent. The exact time of the landings is also fluid and will be dependent on coordination with Air Traffic Control.